60 minutes and three goals in favor. That is what separates Barça from its classification for the Final Four of the Handball Champions League for the seventh consecutive time. The Blaugrana, in force champions, did their homework and this Thursday (20.45 h, eSport3), in a Blaugrana Palau that awaits the atmosphere of the big appointments, they have an appreciable safety mattress to earn the ticket to the Colonia appointment. The last stone on the road is called Pick Szegg, defeated in the first leg (24-27) but dangerous at home, as already demonstrated at the crossroads of the round of 16 before the Parisian PSG.
That tie against one of the best teams on the continent showed the resilience of the Szegg that trains Michael Apelgren, a European classic who wants to change his usual ‘crystal ceiling’ in the Champions League, in which he has been extended in the quarterfinals five times, at the doors of the Final Four. In Hungary, the PSG took command of the crossing with a home victory (30-31) that was left on wet paper against the impressive recital of the Szege Pick in Paris: conclusive victory (25-35) to become the rival of Barça.
MEM, key in the first leg, will be the main objective of the Hungarian defenseAp/lapresse
A Barça who seems to have taken note of the danger of his rival as a visitor and, also, having left behind the recent crisis that postponed his alirón in the Asobal League after two consecutive defeats against Granollers and Valladolid. In Hungary it was again the determined Barça of the great occasions, led by a Dika author of ten goals that will be today the main objective of the defense of the Szege. In the Blaugrana ranks, the finish line Vincent Gérard will be, which was lost due to a bureaucratic error of the RFEBM and the EHF, as well as the rest of the available team except for Pol Valera and the injured Gonzalo, Javier Gallego and Antonio Bazán.
Carlos Ortega, coach Culé, has been able to work conscientiously the second leg since Barça did not play this past weekend in the domestic league. ”We have prepared the game as a final. We are Barça and we have to compete. We knew that the first leg was going to be a very difficult game and the team found its best version. Now I think we are better, with more confidence. But we have a rival of the entity in front of it. of the encounter.
“In our mind, the possibility of losing the tie does not enter,” added the technician, “but we know that we must improve some aspects such as the positional attack, especially so that balls reach the extremes, which almost did not arrive in the first leg.” Ortega warned that the Szegge “will be obliged to propose more than in the first leg. They are able to alternate defense 6: 0 with 5: 1, and they also resort to the attack in numerical superiority. You have to be very prepared because the 7 against 6 enquista, you put easy goals and get into the tie.”
“We do not want to end here,” says the main offensive weapon of Barça, Dik Mem. “Only four go to F4, but we deserve to go.” The French side remarks that, despite the 24-27 of the first leg, “there is much to think of Colonia”, since in the team they are aware that the comeback of the Hungarians in the return of the round of 16 before the Paris Saint-Germain French (25-35), in which they turned around 30-31 conceded in their feud, puts them “in warning.” “It is the first thing that was commented in the locker room after winning there: congratulations, yes, but in the return they beat Paris Saint-Germain in their ten goals. So we have to be very concentrated.”
